Spoon - Kill The Moonlight - Record Review

Kill The Moonlight.
Spoon
Score: 9.1


To call Kill The Moonlight a staggering work of genius would be an overstatement, but not too much of one. Released many moons ago (2002 OMG VINTAGE!) Kill The Moonlight only gets better with time, from the catchy piano openings of the popular (see: wildly commercialized) Way We Get By, to the maniacal laughs of Back to The Life. Kill The Moonlight has got to be one of the greatest albums Spoon has ever released, if not one of the best independent rock albums of the 21st Century (so far).

I realize my last statement may have seemed lofty, presumptuous and, well, like I’m just full of shit. But no! Listen to it right now. And come back to me, look me in the eyes and tell me that it wasn’t better than sex (presumably). Why is it so goddamn good? A question I have posed to the framed picture of Brit Daniel--laid upon cherry red velvet, illuminated only by the flickering of prayer candles—I have in my room. He just smiles his crooked smile, and says nothing, eyes as vacant as something that is oft vacant.

Describing exactly what makes Kill the Moonlight an instant classic, is a harrowing task at best. Something that is great about listening to Kill the Moonlight is that you can see how they progressed from here to there, there being Gimme Fiction.

The standout tracks on Kill the Moonlight are…almost all of them, Small Stakes has a great subdued guitar riff that feels like it flows from a holy place. The Way We Get By, is, obviously great, it’s as catchy as herpes (if not moreso) but I also think that The Way We Get By, is what brings the record down. Hear me out, as I said, the song is great, but it’s commercialization overshadows it’s true genius, which does not lie with this song, with the OC, or with Mean Creek (good movie, though). The commercialization of independent music is something that I could touch upon at a later date although, it would take me months to write about such a scourge.

ANYWAY, The Way We Get By, overshadows the rest of the album, while at times it feels like one of the weaker songs on the album (but by no means weak) The breathy intro to Stay Don’t Go is something I recreated for months, at work, at school, at home, EVERYWHERE, it haunted me so!
The moaning introduction of Jonathan Fisk is superb, as is the song,
The way Paper Tiger dances back and forth inside your headphones, as if being willed from right to left. All of these nuances are what makes listening to the album a profound experience.

As with all songs except for those dirty instrumentalists that people pretend to like so seem deeper than they really are. (Hey, did you hear that new explosions in the sky song? Yeah, man, it fucking rocked! YEAH, I know, I especially liked the part with the instruments and no singing, didn’t you enjoy how the music conveyed heartbreak in (insert song here) by using a medley of instruments? Listen, man, I’m not gonna lie, I fell asleep 2 minutes in) It’s not only that instrumental songs are lame (arguably) for me it only takes a couple minutes for the songs to just become ambience. I forget that it’s even on, my brain hath turned against me and my ear holes have actually sealed themselves up, from the inside!

Where was I, ah, as I was saying or trying to say, at any rate, is that songs aren’t just about the melody or the cadence, words make a song (arguably) and the words in Kill The Moonlight show real growth from A Series of Sneaks. And from here you can see a magnificent growth spurt that leads to Gimme Fiction.

While Kill the Moonlight is just a pit stop for Spoon (35 minutes) you can’t help but feel strangely upset when it is over, even though you know they have gone to a better (maybe) place.

linked at a later date.